Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Last week I got a suprice when I read Lotta Bruhns blog. She was telling the story behind her latest illustration, the Indian Nod. I read the story about Stina & Göran who just came back from a trip in India. Hold it, how many couples in Sweden are called Stina & Göran and who just came home from India?! It was my friends she was talking about!

Had a sms conversation with Stina about it & she wondered how I knew about Lotta Bruhn & her blog. I told Stina that I like Lottas illustrations & especially her whale tray.

Did I get even more supriced today when I received a big envelope in the mail today with Lotta Bruhns stickers on?!?

I was so supriced & didn't understand a thing. I have told mon monsieur that I would love that tray but I am not even sure he remembers it (I show him stuff almost every day). But I could feel it was a tray in the package..

But no, it was a very very lovely gift from Stina, Göran & Lotta herself! Can you believe my luck!? And with the whale tray Lotta sent some of her other things, like christmas stickers, a note card with a little fox, a post card, an owl bookmark & a pin with a cat. So so cute. You made my day!

Thursday, December 18, 2008

There are no window ledges in our apartment. Actually, it doesn't seem to be that common to have window ledges here in France. Can't remember that I have seen any at all here when I think about it. If I had any, I would decorate it something like this for christmas. Very cute. Would fit perfect in the windows in my old apartment in Stockholm. The picture is from Leva & Bo (Expressen) in Sweden.

Treat yourself or someone you love with these yummy Oreo Truffles. They are super easy to make and will be a great treat under the christmas tree. You can find the recipe here, or scroll down if you prefer it in gram. I made them for the first time today, to test them out before giving some away for christmas. I already ate two, which you can see in the picture above. Now I will try to keep my fingers of them until mon monsieur comes home..

In Europe (well, in France & Sweden anyway) you can't find as big packages of Oreo's as in the U.S. So I had to change the recipe. And I also skipped to sprinkle some cookie crumbs on top of the truffles. I didn't find Philadelphia cheese in the store I went to either, but my truffles turned out delicious anyway.

Mix the cookies in a food processor until finely cruched. Soften the cream cheese for about 10 seconds in the microwave (or leave it out from the fridge for half an hour before you start making the truffles).

Add the cream cheese with the cookie crumbles. Stir with the back of a big spoon until well blended. Roll to tiny balls (two bites big). Put them in the freezer for an hour (and not just for some minutes as the orginal recipe says. This will stop them from falling apart in the chocolate like mine did).

Then melt the chocolate in a bowl over boiling water. Dip the balls in the bowl of chocolate with the help of two forks. Let the excess chocolate drip back into the bowl before moving the ball on to a plate with baking sheet. Tips! Dip them two times (let them dry some minutes in between) for more evenly chocolate coat.

You can also sprinkle the truffles with some leftover cookie crumbs if you have saved a cookie or two. Or sprinkle them with colored sugar or sprinkles in general.

Put your truffles in the refrigerator for an hour before enjoying them.

A last tips that I didn't do, but for sure will do for the christmas gifts! Before freezing the balls for an hour (and before the chocolate dipping) put a tooth pick in the top of them. Will make it easier to dip them after, and to make the chocolate coat more even. And then just sprinkle something over the them to hide the tooth pick hole.

I would be so so happy if I could wake up on christmas day and discover this Solär IKEA kitchen (minus that hood) in our flat instead of our teeny tiny almost nonexisting kitchen.

As mentioned in the last post we have been ripping down the wallpaper in the kitchen. We did it after the news that we won't move until june. We are going to move because of work, and again, that is delayed. When I moved to France in the beggining of march we were supposed to move to another city in july-august. Then due to delay of construction workthe move was supposed to take place in february 2009. But for the same reason as last time, now it is delayed another six month.

So, we decided to do something we have been wanting to do for a long time, repaint the kitchen! We didn't want to put any money in the the apartment here since we are not going to stay, and since it is a rental. But, to chear ourselves up after the news of the delay we will do it! Or, we have to do more then just paint. After taking down the wallpaper we noticed that we need to do more work on the walls then we thought. Since they had been cheating a bit last time some work had been done in the kitchen.

Those ugly 70's tiles that are sitting in there will stay (the tiles make me not want to put up a picture of the kitchen here) for the next renter to admire (poor them). Well, if my wish to Santa wont't come true that is.. But atleast I won't have to stare on that awful yellow wallpaper anymore! Tomorrow will be spent looking for new wallpaper/paint.

Its been a busy month with needed vaccation, lots of baking, longway visiter, hosting a Lucia/glögg party at home (Swedish traditions, made into a three course meal dinner party, which was a hit!), ripping down wallpaper in the kitchen among other things. I haven't been decoration that much for christmas. But here are some of it caputured on pictures I found in the camera. This will be the first christmas ever spent without my family back in far far away..

Saturday, November 22, 2008

I have been having troubles finding fabrics I like here in France. Or, at least I haven't found a store yet selling fabrics I like. Flicking throu an old IDEAT I found out about a company that could be the answer for what I have been looking for.

Atelier R.Bernier is a design workshop placed in an old textile factory in Troyes, France. Romain Bernier and Arnaud Magloire are the creative duo behind behind the company. They describe their style as poetic, colourful, modern and graphic. Check out their website here.

They have a clear influense from the nature. Sometimes a little too clourful for me, but I would love to have some of their pillows or, a meter or two of their fabrics. Like their tables are fun too!

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Not that we needed new glasses. We don't even have place for all the ones we already had. Some are tucked down in the basement, and then I still have all my Iittala glasses in the land far far away.

But I have been having my eyes on these a while now. So when I passed the store yesterday looking for christmas gifts, I saw they didn't have many left. I bought one, was thinking we could always use it for something (other then drinking from it I mean). But when I came home I tried it as a drinking glass, and I liked it.. So when monsieur came home we decided we should buy five more.

I don't know how I do it. I always seem to have too many glasses. But you could never have too many glasses? Could you??

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

As I said before, I drink a lot of tea (as right now for example). When I found my favorite tea cups I bought ten of them, just to be sure I had enough. That was some years ago. Now the cups are starting to get worn out. I want to find new ones in a simular shape, and they have to be white. Was thinking about drawing a simple pattern on them too.

Then I found out about Bailey doesn't bark. New York designer Re Jin Lee, makes the perfect tea cups. Both under her own name, and under her company's name Bailey doesn't bark. The cups are a little too prize for my wallet. 62$ for the two in the picture on the left(Dotted cup set). 89$ for the four in the picture on the right(The four seasons cups black). But they are on my wish list.. Check out her web site here. You can buy the cups and other stuff in her etsy shop or here.

Yesterday my latest Etsy purchase arrived in the mail. It was a box with letterpress coasters from the lovely shop 12fifteen by Johanna Anderes. Me and monsieur decided for the gray trees coasters, but there are many more designs worth checking out in her store.

The coasters arrived quick and easy in a very cute package. And also in the package were some more coaster samples in other designs. Mon monsieur fell in love with the bubbles design too (me in more then one design), so we might order more ones sooner then I thought.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Last week we had two birthdays to celebrate. One of those birthday girls got a Melissa Moss note card Ebb, that I framed in a Ribba frame from IKEA. I had planed to get a white frame, but unfortunatly they didn't have a single white one in the size I needed at IKEA. So I bought a silver one instead. But after trying it out with the card at home, I was happy with the result. And most important, the birthday girl seemed happy with her gift.

I forgot to take a picture of the framed card, but this is a montage I did in InDesign. Photos from Melissa Moss web page and IKEA.

You can buy your own prints and cards by Melissa Moss here or in her Etsy shop here.Psst.. Be sure to not miss her black and white mini original drawings in her Etsy shop!

Haven't been blogging a lot lately, I know. I have been stressing out over our PACS. It was such a hazzle to get all the papers we needed. Then a trip made it impossible for it to take place in december as booked. And the only opening they had was november 14th or we had to wait six more months. But, finally we had all the papers, and we signed our PACS yesterday. We spent a wonderful day yesterday, just the two of us. And we are very very happy, and relaxed again.

I like the shape of a mushroom. So of course I fell in love with both these lovely mushroom stools when I first saw them. The one on the left is Fungo by Paola Navone for Riva 1920. It is made out of solid cederwood for the base, and walnut for the seat.

The new updated design of the old swedish advent candlesticks, Orgel by the girls of Wis design is on my wish list this christmas. It is produced and sold by SmålandDesign. The price will be around 1990kr (around 248 u.s dollars)

I am usually not much for holiday decorations, but this year it might be a little more of that in my home. We won't go to the land far far away for christmas this year. So the intake of swedish christmas will be on a diet. Which might be the reason I want to decorate my home more for the holidays. And I would love to do so with this one..

I truly wish I could just run down the stairs and around the corner to ICA (food chain store in Sweden) in my old neighbourhood in Stockholm right now.. For christmas they sell these cute candleholders for only 79kr (right under 10 US dollars) a pair. It is a yearly collaboration between the Red Cross, ICA and Konstfack Humanity. They are designed by former Konstfack student Kristin Karls.

I want both colors, black and white. Will call someone in far far away and ask a favor..

Saturday, November 1, 2008

The new Alphabet modular sofa for Fritz Hansen is inspired by toy Lego bricks. As you can read on the website it consists of a series of "soft building blocks" enabling you to build and create your own sofa design. The overlapping structure in the sofa design creates a building brick effect, an important design feature of the alphabet sofa. I don't know about you, but I would not say no to one in my own home.

This cute Lucile lamp, in picture 1, by Sylvain Rieu-Piquet for Cinna would be perfect on my balcony. I wonder if it is safe to hang outside? With the easy hanging I could take it in when it is not in use though.

I also like this magazine holder, Caroll by Philippe Teste for Cinna. Would come hand as we have papers, magazines etc everywhere for the moment in lack of good storage.

Via the lovely blog of Heather Moore, Skinny laminx, I saw this Tolga bed(picture 1) from IKEA U.S. Was supriced to see it since I hadn't seen it in France, or not even in the IKEA country Sweden. I knew they didn't sell all of the swedish collection all around the world. And for example mattresses and other items with different country standard measurements. But I did not know they sold items designed for specific countries. My guess is that Bodö, available in Europe, is the substitute for the european shopper. Bummer, I wanted Tolga as a guest bed/day bed in our future guest room.

Monday, October 27, 2008

I hope everyone had a just as great weekend as I did. On saturday we went to visit a friend in Rennes. Sunday we spent at a zoo, visiting inside the monkeys park. Was very nice sitting there inside with them, taking many nice photos. Walking out from the zoo I found these cute berries/fruits. Have no clue what they are, never seen any like this before. But I picked some for decoration.

Today we will get some longway visitors, my grandmother & husband from the north of far far away! They have traveled around 2900 km (1800 miles) by car to get here. May I add she is 78yrs old. They will stay until wednesday, then they will continue south to Spain. So I won't be able to post anything here until wednesday evening.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

In this household we use too much paper. Paper napkins, paper towels, alot of kleenex (mostly me) etc. I thought I should do something about that, try to cut down the usage a little. I will still be using lots of kleenex though, can't do much about that. Or chop of my nose, but I don't want to do that.

Friday, October 24, 2008

French designer Mlle Héloïse is not new for the frenchmen. I saw her bags at La Marelle the first time I was in Rennes to visit a friend. Her work remind me alot of Angie Lewin and Lucienne Day. If I had a little daughter I would buy her the smaller stylish bag in jute (picture number 1). Might buy the bigger one for myself. I would use it as a beachbag, or to bring home groceries from the market in. Will also pick up one or two of the make up bags (picture number 2) the next time I am in Rennes. For more colors, or to see more of her work (badges, plates etc) click here, they have an online store too.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

One of my favorite swedish textile designers, Linda Svensson has released her very first own collection Linda Svensson Collection. She is the designer behind some of the most popular textiles at IKEA, and also the Svamp cushion from Mio and some pattern at Klippans Yllefabrik, like I have written about before.